Birders' Nest

[Elgarian Redux]

[Continuing ...]
After chocolate, we ventured out onto the jetty. The air was almost tangible: a blue mist everywhere, and the Lakeland mountains across the bay looked like something out of a Turner watercolour. And a few views looking like something from a science fiction movie: strange things on the water in the mist on a distant planet.

[More to follow ...]

[Elgarian Redux]

[Continuing ...]
And of course there were birds: waders in profusion along the waterline. The usual suspects: mostly oystercatchers and redshanks. I've yet to see cormorants out here, but I know they're here somewhere.

[Iota]

Love those shots in the mist across Morecambe Bay, Elgarian! Easy to get lost in them in dream-like fashion, and the last one of the solitary post standing in the sea, you could almost apply your memorable description of owlice's Heron to, being set strikingly against the context of nothingness.
And the gull showing its John Travolta side made me smile.

[Elgarian Redux]

Love those shots in the mist across Morecambe Bay, Elgarian! Easy to get lost in them in dream-like fashion, and the last one of the solitary post standing in the sea, you could almost apply your memorable description of owlice's Heron to, being set strikingly against the context of nothingness.
And the gull showing its John Travolta side made me smile.

It was all so very like walking about inside a Turner watercolour!

And the jive-talkin' gull did look very pleased with himself, dancing, dancing, dancing .. worm!!

[Elgarian Redux]

A footnote to the above:

I have never till a few days ago seen a herring gull dance on grass to catch worms, but since then I have seen three! I've obviously never noticed this behaviour sufficiently to register or think about it.

[Kalevala]

Turkey's ornate Ottoman-era 'bird palaces'https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20251217-turkeys-ornate-ottoman-era-bird-palaces

K

[Elgarian Redux]

Turkey's ornate Ottoman-era 'bird palaces'https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20251217-turkeys-ornate-ottoman-era-bird-palaces

K

Wow. Sadly, there's no room in our garden for such bird houses...

[Kalevala]

Wow. Sadly, there's no room in our garden for such bird houses...

You might be able to make (find?!) a mini-version.      Or perhaps build something out of brick...and? and very English-looking?

Just built two "nests" for my "birds".  I do this for the holidays.  I have a relatively large feather red bird which sits on a mantle-piece.  For this (and my other bird) I cut some fairly short pieces of shrubbery and tree bits and make a temporary nest for it to sit on.

The other "bird" is a metal work (a bit bigger with cut-outs on it--It actually holds a votive, though obviously I don't light it when it's on its nest!).  I do the same with it in a different room.  It even gets a petite bow tie (narrow metallic ribbon around its neck) for the holidays.  Silly, I know, but it makes me and I think some others happy...a bit of whimsy as it were.    A bit more decorating (and cleaning to do.  So it goes this year).  Hope to finish up tomorrow.  And you?

K

[Elgarian Redux]

You might be able to make (find?!) a mini-version.      Or perhaps build something out of brick...and? and very English-looking?

Just built two "nests" for my "birds".  I do this for the holidays.  I have a relatively large feather red bird which sits on a mantle-piece.  For this (and my other bird) I cut some fairly short pieces of shrubbery and tree bits and make a temporary nest for it to sit on.

The other "bird" is a metal work (a bit bigger with cut-outs on it--It actually holds a votive, though obviously I don't light it when it's on its nest!).  I do the same with it in a different room.  It even gets a petite bow tie (narrow metallic ribbon around its neck) for the holidays.  Silly, I know, but it makes me and I think some others happy...a bit of whimsy as it were.    A bit more decorating (and cleaning to do.  So it goes this year).  Hope to finish up tomorrow.  And you?

K

I'm all for a bit of silliness now and then, as you know. The world has enough miserable seriousness without me adding to it. Your idea of home-made birds and nests sounds a good one! Do you have photos?

It looks as though the pheasants will be spending Christmas with us this year!

All the best to you.

[Kalevala]

I'm all for a bit of silliness now and then, as you know. The world has enough miserable seriousness without me adding to it. Your idea of home-made birds and nests sounds a good one! Do you have photos?

It looks as though the pheasants will be spending Christmas with us this year!

All the best to you.

Hello.

I have some photos of them, but don't have one of those accounts to which one can upload.  The birds themselves I didn't make.  I found the red feathered  bird some years ago at a shop which had a number of Christmas ornaments.  I think that I might have found the votive chicken there too at another time.

A bit more coffee to sip and then back to mad house cleaning and decorating [Hope to have a friend over later to share some dinner].

Enjoy the pheasant company! 

K

[Elgarian Redux]

Out to Morecambe Prom this morning for pre-Christmas hot chocolate. Our Herring Gull was waiting for us, just outside the window of the sun lounge, doing his Worm Dance. He caught 4 worms in a minute!

We don't often seem to catch Morecambe at High Tide, but today we did (photo below). So no waders in view from the jetty, but there was a swimming bird at a great distance (photos below). Looks like a Great Crested Grebe to me, and he's catching a fish or something in the second photo. The photos are pretty hopeless at such a distance unfortunately. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Elgarian Redux]

Afterwards, back at home, a few of our humbler residents were calling in to offer Season's Greetings.

(Actually we don't see blackbirds in the garden all that often.)

[Kalevala]

Afterwards, back at home, a few of our humbler residents were calling in to offer Season's Greetings.

(Actually we don't see blackbirds in the garden all that often.)

Blackbird?!  But it's blue!  Confused here.   

K

[Elgarian Redux]

There are lots of reasons why it might seem blue.
1. There's digital processing in the camera which may not be perfectly accurate with respect to colour reproduction.
2. I usually adjust the brightness and contrast of all my photos, which may result in a slight apparent colour shift.
3. The monitors we use will almost certainly not be perfectly accurate in the way they display colour. Mine will be different to yours.
4. There may be some irridescence in the bird's plumage which causes the light reflected from the bird to have a slight blue cast.

We wouldn't notice such slight changes normally, but with a bird that's perfectly black (i.e. a total absence of colour) any slight change in colour balance (for any of the above reasons) will be much more noticeable.

[owlice]

My most recent bird sighting:

Gingerbread Cookie

Also recently seen, this little chap:

European Robin

This bright greenie:

Rose-ringed Parakeet

And this apparently gobsmacked fellow:

Black-headed Gull

Happy merry everything!

[Kalevala]

My most recent bird sighting:

Gingerbread Cookie

Cooooo kee!      

K

[Kalevala]

I added a tiny bit to my Christmas bird ornament collection this year.  I found a neat-looking "feathered" owl at a gardening store.  It's roughly the size of a saw-whet owl and made me think of one when I saw it.  It's currently sitting/standing on my sideboard in my dining room.  It doesn't look particularly Christmasie (spelling?), so haven't decided yet whether or not to leave it up or pack it away with the red bird for the year.  The votive one:  all I do is remove it's special bow tie and get rid of the nests (clippings) for both it and the red bird.

Last year, I found a lovely ornament of a bird:  it's a flat glass one that was etched by an artist which I hang on the tree.  Had hoped to get a couple more this year, but the timing did not work out.

K

[owlice]

Cooooo kee!      

K

It is no more! (But was delicious!)

[Kalevala]

It is no more! (But was delicious!)

It's really cute and I do love ginger-flavored things.  Did you purchase it from a local bakery?

I think that I'm going to have to give away some chocolate treats (None are bird-shaped alas).  Went a bit too crazy at Trader Joe's with a friend pre-Christmas!

K

[owlice]

Did you purchase it from a local bakery?

No; it was purchased at a grocery store (M&S) during our Christmas feast shopping spree.

By "feast," I mean an assortment of party-type foods: cheeses, crackers, raw veggies with two kinds of hummus for dip, stuffed grape leaves, berries, and etc. We had no means to heat anything (except water for tea), but it didn't matter: we ate quite well.

When my son was small, I'd sometimes not feel like cooking a "real" dinner, so we would have a feast instead: lots of little party-type things that we usually ate in the living room while playing a game (Scrabble, etc.). He loved this, and so did I.